The Only Way Is Up At Cannes

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images

A grumpy old man has become the first big star of this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Carl Fredricksen may be 78 years old and computer generated but he had critics applauding wildly after a screening of the Festival’s opening night film Up. The tenth feature from Pixar , the studio behind Toy Story and Monsters Inc, is the first animated feature to ever open the world’s most important film festival. Ed (Lou Grant) Asner provides the voice of the retired balloon salesman who finds a new lease of life when he ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies away to the wilds of South America. He is joined by eight-year old stowaway Kevin, a perky Wilderness Explorer whose wild enthusiasm is a complete contrast to Carl’s crotchety demeanour. “ I’m a sucker for sentimentality, “ claims Asner. “ The film has something to say about celebrating life, and the union of two souls is always much sweeter than the isolation of one.” Up will open in Britain in the autumn and was set to delight a celebrity audience at a red carpet opening night gala where Bryan Ferry paid musical tribute to 84 year-old French chansonnier Charles Aznavour who provides the voice of Carl in the French language version of Up. British hopes in the Festival rest on romantic drama The Fish Tank and the latest Ken Loach film Looking For Eric in which a British postman and dedicated football fan receive lessons in life from Eric Cantona.

Blogger: GFF Co-director Allan Hunter